Change advanced option values

Use advanced options to configure Tekla Structures to suit the way you work, or to comply with specific project requirements or industry standards. You can change the values in the Advanced options dialog, or in the initialization (.ini) files.

Note:

The settings in the Advanced options dialog override the settings in any other initialization (.ini) files. We recommend that you change advanced option values in the Advanced options dialog in most cases.

Change advanced option values in the Advanced options dialog

On the File menu, click Settings > Advanced options to open the Advanced options dialog.
Browse the categories or search to find the advanced option that you want to set.

To search for advanced options, enter a search term in the search field. To search for the search term in all categories, select In all categories.

You can also use wildcards in searches. For example, to find all advanced options that have the words anchor and filter, with any characters between these two words, enter anchor*filter.
Select the type of the advanced options from the list next to the option type.
- You can change the type of the role-specific advanced option between SYSTEM (ROLE), MODEL (ROLE), and DRAWING(ROLE).
  - When you change the option type to SYSTEM(ROLE), the value automatically changes to the default value.
  - When you enter a value for a SYSTEM (ROLE) option, it changes to MODEL (ROLE) or DRAWING(ROLE).
- You can change the type of system-specific advanced options from SYSTEM to MODEL(SYSTEM). When you change the option type to MODEL(SYSTEM), the value is saved in the options database. If you change the advanced option back to SYSTEM, the value is removed from the options database and the value specified in initialization files is used.
Enter the value for the advanced option or select the value from the list.
- You can use switches with some advanced options, for example, to define the contents of marks: %TPL:PROJECT.NUMBER%.
  
  If you define a switch for an advanced option in the Advanced options dialog, use single percent signs %xxx% around the switch.
  
  If you define the switch in an .ini file, use double percent signs %%xxx%% around the switch.
  
  For example, add %%BOLT_NUMBER%%*D%%HOLE.DIAMETER%% to define the advanced option XS_BOLT_MARK_STRING_FOR_SIZE in an .ini file.
- If you need to enter a folder path, you can type a backslash at the end of the folder path or leave it out.
Click Apply or OK.
For the model-specific advanced options, you need to reopen the model to activate the new value. For some of the user-specific and system-specific advanced options, you need to restart Tekla Structures.

Change advanced option values in the .ini files

In some cases, you might need to change the advanced option in an .ini file, such as when the advanced option does not exist in the Advanced options dialog, or when you want to use the same value in all new models.

For example, you can add the advanced option to an environment .ini file or user.ini file.

For more information about other .ini files, see Typical initialization files (.ini files) and their reading order.

For more information about adding an advanced option in the user.ini file, see Add an advanced option to user.ini file.

Use switches as advanced option values

If you need to give a switch as a value for an advanced option in an .ini file, use double percent signs (%%) around the switch. For example, enter the following advanced option on a row of its own in an .ini file: set XS_DRAWING_PLOT_FILE_NAME_C=%%TPL:DR_PART_POS%%
If you need to give a switch as a value for an advanced option in the Advanced options dialog, use a single percent sign (%) around the switch. For example, enter %TPL:DR_PART_POS% as the value for XS_DRAWING_PLOT_FILE_NAME_C in the Printing category of the Advanced options dialog.

Create a list of advanced options in a text file

To create a complete list of advanced options in a text file, click Write to file. The list shows the name of the advanced option together with its current value and type. Note that writing to a file is only an export of the current settings, it is not another way of changing the advanced options.